Seven Song Spin: With Friends Like These
For this week's playlist I'm getting personal—i.e., giving credit to folks I know who've turned me onto music I've grown to love. Sufjan Stevens has written stoically about "friend rock," a genre defined by one's relationship to the personnel involved rather than one's musical affinity for it. Consider this my friend mix, all affinity, no apology.
You can find this whole playlist here.
My easy ride: Like most Gen-X music nerds worth their kosher salt, I did my share of wooing-by-mixtape. This saucy Bessie Smith number was the lead track on one of the few mixes a paramour made for me in return.
A watery ball in space: I never saw the Dark Bob, an edgy-voiced L.A. singer/songwriter of '80s/'90s vintage, but my former boss and friend, the polymathic Jack Skelley, played guitar and sang on this indelible track, "Glorious Site." The whole thing is a sensual ride; Jack comes in around 1:13.
Water of the mouth: I've written before about how the brilliant mezzo Stephanie Vlahos turned me onto Serge Gainsbourg. "L'eau à la bouche" is a track I first heard her sing with her band in a sultry West L.A. club.
Down, down, down, down, down, down: I got a treasure trove of songs from the now defunct power-pop blog Little Hits, but most of them not directly from the site itself but from David Parmeter, a friend who co-hosted a party with me and let me copy all his Little Hits mp3s for the music mix. Among the ones I cherish most is "Cerise," a jangly dreamscape by the Carousel.
Like my heart is quick: My college friend Mark Watkins didn't turn me onto Prince, exactly, but he certainly tuned me into many more levels and dispensations of the Purple One's catalog than I might otherwise have noted. He also made at least one delicious mix CD for me, and I still relish this choice cut from Norway, "Lovesick."
A watery ball in space: I never saw the Dark Bob, an edgy-voiced L.A. singer/songwriter of '80s/'90s vintage, but my former boss and friend, the polymathic Jack Skelley, played guitar and sang on this indelible track, "Glorious Site." The whole thing is a sensual ride; Jack comes in around 1:13.
Water of the mouth: I've written before about how the brilliant mezzo Stephanie Vlahos turned me onto Serge Gainsbourg. "L'eau à la bouche" is a track I first heard her sing with her band in a sultry West L.A. club.
Down, down, down, down, down, down: I got a treasure trove of songs from the now defunct power-pop blog Little Hits, but most of them not directly from the site itself but from David Parmeter, a friend who co-hosted a party with me and let me copy all his Little Hits mp3s for the music mix. Among the ones I cherish most is "Cerise," a jangly dreamscape by the Carousel.
Like my heart is quick: My college friend Mark Watkins didn't turn me onto Prince, exactly, but he certainly tuned me into many more levels and dispensations of the Purple One's catalog than I might otherwise have noted. He also made at least one delicious mix CD for me, and I still relish this choice cut from Norway, "Lovesick."
Les échos du bonheur: Eric Ting, the same friend who first turned me onto Adrian Celentano's indelible "Prisencolinensinainciusol," also included this priceless Piaf cover by Martha Wainwright, "Adieu mon coeur," on one of a series of great mix CDs.
If you can't handle crazy: My dear friend Cinco Paul has been a musical North Star for me, helping turn me onto everyone from Elvis Costello to Charlotte Hatherley, from Richard Swift to the Clark Sisters. His tastes are perhaps a little poppier than mine, but this singalong-able track from the Nashville trio Those Darlins is as easy to love as it is impossible to resist.
If you can't handle crazy: My dear friend Cinco Paul has been a musical North Star for me, helping turn me onto everyone from Elvis Costello to Charlotte Hatherley, from Richard Swift to the Clark Sisters. His tastes are perhaps a little poppier than mine, but this singalong-able track from the Nashville trio Those Darlins is as easy to love as it is impossible to resist.
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